By LEE JENKINS

Published: February 27, 2006

As Henrik Lundqvist dropped into a split, a hockey goalie turned ice dancer, an arena winced and a country cringed.

Sweden led Finland by one goal. The clock at Palasport Olimpico showed 25 seconds. The puck trickled ominously into the crease. Lundqvist, the Swedish goalie who plays for the Rangers when he is not at the Olympics, had little choice but to assume his most painful position.

Shielded from the action, Lundqvist said he did not see Finland's Olli Jokinen kick the puck with his skate, control it with his stick and fling it toward the net. Stretched across the goal line, Lundqvist missed the puck with his right leg. He missed it with his right arm. Only a couple splinters of his stick secured Sweden's 3-2 victory over Finland in Sunday's gold medal game, the final event of the Olympics.

''It was,'' Lundqvist said, ''one of the most important saves of my career.''

As the Swedish forward Fredrik Modin said: ''It was the gold. Right there.''

The last time Sweden captured a gold medal in hockey, at the Lillehammer Games in 1994, the Swedish Postal Services created a stamp to commemorate Peter Forsberg's winning goal. Should a new stamp be issued, it will have to show Lundqvist with his legs splayed. It will have to show Jokinen, starting to raise his arms. And it will have to show the puck finally dribbling away.

''Close,'' Jokinen said.

''Sick,'' Forsberg said.

''Luck,'' Lundqvist said.

When the 25 seconds had ticked to zero, Lundqvist was Sweden's newest legend and the Rangers' newest icon, all at once. He took off his mask, emblazoned with the Statue of Liberty, and tossed it triumphantly in the air. He untucked his jersey, colored Sweden's blue and gold, and revealed his red Rangers' goalie pants underneath his pads.

Lundqvist will return to New York this week, forever changed from when he left. He is no longer the Rangers' rookie goalie who went to training camp vying for a backup job. He is one of the most celebrated hockey players in the world. As Lundqvist looked down at his gold medal, he said, ''On my flight back to New York, I will be staring at this.''

The viewing public will still be deconstructing replays of his inconceivable flurry of saves. Lundqvist acknowledged that he had an inconsistent Olympic tournament, but in the final minutes of the final game, he blocked a shot by Kimmo Timonen with his chest. He deflected a shot by Niklas Hagman with his shoulder. He turned away a shot by Jere Lehtinen with his stick. He left Teemu Selanne in tears.

''Some guys are smiling all the way,'' Selanne said. ''And some are not.''

At the medal ceremony, the Swedish side of the ice was littered with helmets and gloves and sticks, the remnants of a raging victory party. The Finnish side was laid completely bare. Swedish players kissed their gold medals. Finnish players did not even acknowledge whatever silver accessory was hanging from their necks.

Losing a game of this magnitude was difficult enough. But losing it to the Swedes was especially excruciating. These two Nordic countries, which share 380 miles of borders, have long been oceans apart in the hockey standings. Sweden has beaten Finland 40 times in Olympic and World Championship competition. Finland has beaten Sweden 15 times.

So cocky were the Swedes that one tabloid newspaper ran a story Sunday encouraging Finnish residents to immigrate to Sweden if they wanted to be part of a gold medal celebration. The story was headlined ''Tomorrow is too late,'' and it included a link on the Web site to official immigration documents. The link was particularly insulting, considering that Sweden had ruled Finland for 650 years.

Once again, big brother beat little brother, the bully ruled the playground, the prom king got the girl. Ten seconds into the third period, with the score tied at 2-2 and the teams playing four-on-four, Mats Sundin left a pass for Forsberg, who left a pass for defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom. Those three players, more than any others, have made Sweden a hockey superpower. And those three players, together one last time, would team up for their crowning moment.

In a single furious motion, Lidstrom took the pass, took the shot and scored the winning goal, a high hard one that struck Finland square in the chin. ''I hit it perfect,'' Lidstrom said. ''I had everything on that shot. It went right where I aimed. It could be the biggest goal I ever scored.''

As four Swedes embraced on the ice, one Swede started jumping up and down in the penalty box. Tomas Holmstrom, the Swedish forward who also plays alongside Lidstrom for the Detroit Red Wings, worried that his penalty would hurt his team. But Lidstrom, a defenseman to his core, continued to erase mistakes.

Soon enough, the Swedes will have to go without Lidstrom, Forsberg and Sundin, their aging leaders. The country will turn instead to Lundqvist, a 23-year-old who also plays bass guitar in a rock band. The flag was officially passed to Lundqvist late Sunday afternoon, and he wore it around his shoulders, matching his gold medal.

Now it is back to New York, to a team that leads the Atlantic Division and is starting to talk about the unthinkable. Lundqvist tried Sunday to compare the gold medal he has already won with the Stanley Cup he has not yet won.

He refused to say the gold medal meant more. He refused to settle for a split.

Photos: Goalie Henrik Lundqvist was swarmed by his teammates after Sweden defeated Finland for the gold. ''It was,'' Lundqvist said, ''one of the most important saves of my career.'' (Photos by Above, Doug Mills/The New York Times; below, Robert Laberge/Getty Images)(pg. D5)